


Nophie Has Us in a Chokehold

by Leverage_of_Tomorrow



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24987226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leverage_of_Tomorrow/pseuds/Leverage_of_Tomorrow
Summary: This is an idea from a group chat that they decided I should write. Basically, members from our group chat end up in the leverage world and get taught by Nate and Sophie how to be members of the team.
Relationships: Sophie Devereaux & Nathan Ford, Sophie Devereaux/Nathan Ford
Comments: 13
Kudos: 8





	1. The Groupchat

“Fay and Izzy are always fighting over Sophie,” Allie texted to the group chat, “Yet it still manages to make me laugh every single time.” She joined the leverage group chat, lovingly named leverage has us in a chokehold, after most but still managed to quickly make friends with everyone. The chat quickly turned to bugging Kaitlin for links to her fanfics and for her to update some of them. Kaitlin was the resident writer of the group while Izzy was the resident video editor completely obsessed with the Nophie with Taylah being a close second to her level of obsession. Despite the show having not been televised for a while the group was still obsessed with it and spun fan theories constantly, with a recent renewal of the show only making their obsession worse. Fay was one to pop in every once in a while to crush on Sophie or argue with Izzy on something.

“Ok, I’ll update the wedding fic but I’m also working on part 2 to something else,” Kaitlin texted.

“Just focus on one at a time to satisfy Izzy,” Allie sent quickly before receiving a link from Taylah.

The link Taylah sent was a link to an online casting call and she wrote, “Look a casting call for the new leverage show!!”

“If only I lived in America I would audition in a second,” Izzy replied before being bombarded to go to bed.

“But just imagine us in leverage like I will pay to be in it,” Fay responded bringing the discussion back to their latest topic.

“I mean I can pick locks,” Allie sent bragging, “so I would fit right in.”

“So Allie is basically Parker, and Izzy should be Hardison, who would I be?” Kaitlin asked.

“I mean I would make more sense as Elitot because of my years of taekwondo, so you could be Parker,” Allie said.

“Does that mean I get to be Nate?” Taylah sent, receiving a number of positive responses before Izzy interjected back into the conversation.

“Ajskdkd why am I Hardison, if I was anyone I would be Sophie,” Izzy responded.

“You do the computer stuff editing whatever, but I would be Sophie,” Fay countered.

“Oh here we go again, Izzy and Fay arguing about Sophie,” Allie sent but not before the argument took hold.

“Ok Izzy, go to sleep and we’ll talk about this when you get up, sound good?” Kaitlin sent, trying to resolve the conflict.

“Fine, I will but Sophie’s mine,” Izzy said logging off with a barrage of go to bed texts arrived on her phone. Izzy went to bed as the chat went silent for the day as Fay also decided to take a nap, while Kaitlin worked on writing, and Allie and Taylah both worked on various projects on their laptops. Izzy awoke sitting on a barstool and she immediately knew that she could only be one place, her favorite place, Leverage Incorporated Portland branch.


	2. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izzy fell asleep and awoke in a dream or is it?

It didn’t take Izzy long to realize where she was, but she simply chalked it up as being a dream. As she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, not thinking much of it, she looked around the room. She could see into the other rooms around but there was no one there, so she decided to get up and walk to the front of the restaurant. When she got there she noticed Allie sitting at the bar working on her laptop. “Why is she in my leverage dream and where is the team?” Izzy asked herself before walking over the bar, “Hey Allie, what’s the con today?”

“Huh?” Allie asked as she pulled her focus away from the laptop. She looked around and thought to herself, “I must have fallen asleep while I was working.” She looked back at Izzy responding with a question, “Well I’m not the mastermind so why should I know?”

“So neither of us know the con and the mastermind isn’t here, what a predicament,” Izzy responded as the two girls began to laugh.

Allie looked around and noticed someone sitting at a table by a window. “Wait, is that… is that Kaitlin?” She asked as she looked back at Izzy.

“Oh my gosh you’re right, I guess we should go over and say hi,” Izzy said before thinking to herself, “This dream is just getting weirder, but I guess I’ll go down the rabbit hole.” The pair walked over to the table where Kaitlin was sitting, and Izzy asked jokingly,”   
Are you the mastermind because it's not Allie or me?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Kaitlin said as she turned to look at Izzy and Allie before blinking rapidly out of confusion.

“You alright there?” Allie asked with a slight laugh in her voice.

“Yeah, it's just… uh it's just, it's nothing, I’m perfectly fine,” Kaitlin said shaking her head as she was still taken aback by her surroundings. She knew where she was but she didn’t know how she got there or why she was there. Unlike the other two, she didn’t simply attribute it to being a dream. 

“Um sure you are,” Allie said before looking out the corners of her eyes at Izzy and back at Kaitlin, “Have you seen anyone else here or is it just us three here?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t even know you two were…” Kaitlin responded before being interrupted by Fay running into the room. “Fay, you’re here too?”

“Yeah, I’m just as surprised as you guys,” Fay said dragging Taylah along behind her. “Taylah’s here too so I think that’s everyone from the group chat.”

“Do either of you have any idea of whats going on?” Izzy asked wondering what this dream was trying to tell her. She couldn’t figure out what her subconscious wanted from her or why all her friends she had never seen face to face were here.

“Like I said, I’m just as confused as you guys. I only found Taylah because I woke up at the counter where they do briefings and she was sitting next to me,” Fay responded looking around the room for any clue as to why she was there and where she really was. She knew this wasn’t a soundstage so what is it and where.

“Ok, so what DO we know right now besides the fact that we are all here?” Kaitlin asked the group trying to narrow down the possibilities.

“Well, like you Kaitlin, I was on my laptop focused in until Izzy pulled my attention away from what I was working on. Then we joked a bit and I looked around and saw you working on your laptop and then Taylah and Fay came running in,” Allie responded.

After everyone sharing confused looks, Taylah chimed in with, “Are we absolutely sure someone isn’t hiding that they really know where we are?”

“Why would someone be hiding that information from us, like what do they gain from hiding that,” Fay asked still unsure what was happening.

“That’s a good question, but isn’t it kind of convenient that we were talking about who we would be in leverage yesterday and now we seem to be in it?” 

“Ok, and are we sure this isn’t a soundstage?” Kaitlin said becoming more confused by the second. She still couldn’t figure out where they were and it was bugging her.

“Yeah, I’m like 99% certain this isn’t a soundstage cause there are 4 walls and a ceiling,” Fay said garnering a few chuckles from Allie and Izzy. 

“Ok my dream is just getting weirder and why does it feel so real. Something doesn’t feel right at all,” Izzy thought to herself, “If this is a dream, which it is… it has to be, then why am I essentially comparing my notes against figments of my imagination.”

“Say this is all real and we are actually here, the next question is how did we get here and why are we here?” Allie said trying to focus the conversation on the main problem.

“Well, I can answer why for you,” the group heard a masculine voice say before they turned around and realized Nathan Ford standing behind the counter of the bar.


	3. Rationalizing the Impossible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group meets Nate, but how do they rationalize it in their heads?

“Darling, are you sure this is going to work with just the two of us?” Sophie asked as her voice echoed through the empty restaurant reminding both that it had been a long time since they had done a con alone.

“I’m absolutely certain that it will,” Nate said, his voice ever so convincing and his eyes gleaming at Sophie, leaning in for a kiss.

“You always say that just before things go bad,” Sophie said as she pulled away letting the words hang in the air just enough so that Nate could tell she was nervous, but not scared. 

“Do you trust me?” Nate asked convincing enough that even Sophie couldn’t tell that he was on edge as well.

“Do you even need to ask that?” Sophie countered leaning back in for a kiss, her lips being met by Nate’s.

~o0o~

“Ok, this feels like a dream yeah,” Izzy thought to herself staring back at Nate, “I mean if this was real, which it's not, then Nate Ford wouldn’t be staring back at me. Well, how can I be sure it's not Timothy Hutton and why would my brain choose Nate over Sophie? Ok, let’s go over the basic facts. Yesterday, or was it just a couple of minutes ago. Ok Ok, before I went to sleep we were discussing the leverage casting call and who we would be like Taylah said. They bugged me to go to sleep and I did, but then I woke up at the briefing station. Wait, didn’t Fay and Taylah say they work up there too. How could I have not seen her, I mean it makes sense since this is a dream right? Back to the order of events, neither Allie nor Kaitlin paid any attention to what was going on until their attention was pulled away, but the same didn’t go for Fay and Taylah, so my brain doesn’t have the rules straight, that’s all…”

“Wait, what is going on?” Allie asked bringing Izzy’s focus back to the situation at hand and out of her thoughts. Allie didn’t want to believe what was right in front of her either but how could she deny it.

“What she said,” Taylah chimed in, nodding her head towards Allie.

“Well…” Nate said being cut off by Fay causing his face to fill with annoyance.

“Before you say anything tell us your name,” Fay was completely starstruck and couldn’t process what was happening. Her first thought was that it was Timothy Hu***n, but she was pushing away the idea that it was Nate. “Logically, it would almost make more sense it was Nate, right?” She thought to her self.

“Why do you need me to do that? It seems like you already know who I am,” His voice filled with annoyance, trying to keep calm.

“I agree with Fay, just tell us your name,” Kaitlin replied. She thought it was Nate but it could be T*m, she just had to be certain of it.

“Fine, if you’re going to be so insistent. My name is Nathan….” Nate replied being cut off again, but this time by Allie which afforded a sigh and his face filling with more annoyance. He had a time frame and they weren’t following it.

“Can you give us a second to talk in private?” Allie asked trying to think of a proper strategy of how to go about this to make sure all their minds are following the same train of thought. If they weren’t she knew this could go south quick. She was just as starstruck as the other girls, but as soon as she saw Nate her logical side took over. She instantly began analyzing the situation in almost the same way Nate would do a cold read on a client, but not nearly as sophisticated.

“Um, I guess…” Nate responded beginning to look confused by the response before the girls formed a circle.

“First, Izzy, stop drooling over Nate,” Allie said quietly.

“I am not drooling over him,” Izzy replied, her tone filled with annoyance, but matching Allie’s volume nonetheless. Even if it was a dream, her brain did it automatically without much thought.

“Yeah, you kind of are. You have that face of just like utter amazement,” Taylah said garnering a few chuckles.

“We need to be serious guys, how do we figure out if this is real or what?” Allie asked.

~o0o~

“Doesn’t Hardison usually do this stuff?” Sophie asked attempting to do research on the computer using one of Hardison’s preset programs, yet becoming increasingly more perplexed by the program.

“Well, yes but we have to do it ourselves,” Nate said not paying much attention to Sophie, digging into the research and formulating the con in his head.

Sophie knew that without the team around he would get too serious and she couldn’t let him do that. “And why is that darling?” Sophie asked trying to bring his attention away from the con and back towards her.

Nate sighed and slumped back in his chair, slowly moving his gaze away from the screen and towards Sophie getting up from her chair, “Do you need me to explain it again or do you just want me to stop doing research about the con?”

“Which ones the better answer?” Sophie said with a sultry smile walking over to sit on the table in front of Nate as she pushed the laptop away.

~o0o~

After a couple of minutes of talking the girls were in agreement on how to approach the situation. They began to turn around so Nate asked, with a tinge of annoyance in his voice although less than before, “Are you done or should I continue waiting?”

“Yes, you can start by continuing where you were before we cut you off,” Allie said with determination in her voice, she was going to figure out what was going on.

Izzy started thinking about what her subconscious wants from her, when Nate’s voice distracted her, “Yes, as I was saying, I’m sure you know who I am. I’m Nathan Ford”

“Do you ever use a certain pseudonym that starts with a T?” Fay asked trying to draw an answer out of him based upon watching too many clips of Sophie Deveraux. She attempted to leave the words hanging in the air, but no one could do it like Sophie and Fay knew that.

“What are you talking about? Not that I can think of, they tend to change from time to time.”

“Ok so he’s not Timothy Hutton,” Izzy thought to herself, “or so I think. This does make more sense since it's a dream that it wouldn’t be Timothy.” Her mind wanted to wander away and become distracted by something else but Izzy knew she had to pay attention.

“Ok, and why are we here?” Kaitlin asked satisfied with the previous answers.

“Well, that question might be better answered in the back room. I assume a few of you have already been there,” Nate said walking through the door frame towards the back room. The girls followed, Allie and Kaitlin looked around amazed as they had not been in the room earlier. Allie kept and calm and cool composure trying to stave away the shocked look from her face, while Kaitlin didn’t and wouldn’t have been able to as her breathing increased and her face flushed. 

“Where is everyone?” Taylah asked looking around the room.

“We’ll get into that in a minute but first we need to go over the research,” Nate said pulling the information up onto the screen, but not nearly as natural as Hardison would have.

“Were you really going to start without me, darling?” Sophie asked walking into the room as everyone’s focus shifted to her, the words hanging in the air.


	4. Sophie Devereaux in the Flesh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally meet Sophie Devereaux.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Between a wrist injury and writer's block, it took me a while to get this up, but I finally finished it, so here you go.

_When the client said IYS was the target, Nate just couldn’t say no. He knew what the rest of the team, and especially Sophie would say. They would tell him you already got revenge and ask if it was really worth it, but this time it's not for himself. “This time it's different because of the client, right?” he asked himself, trying to justify it in his head. He had certainly cost IYS some money in the past, and, unfortunately, saved them money once in a while. Sophie insisted that she should still be there with him for this job but he didn’t want the rest of the team involved. If it was up to him even Sophie wouldn’t be doing the job with him, but he knew it was good to at least keep Sophie there for the job. “Like I had a choice,” Nate thought to himself with a little chuckle. Now all he had to do was to find a team to do this with, but how was he going to do that._

~o0o~

“AHHHHHHHHHH that’s Sophie, my love,” Izzy thought to herself although wanting to say it aloud, “Ok, ok don’t embarrass yourself in front of Sophie. Deep breaths, just breathe, but Sophie is standing in front of me. Ok, this is starting to feel even more real than before. Maybe this isn’t just a dream.”

Kaitlin’s thoughts were much similar to Izzy’s as were Fay’s and Taylah’s, except for the thought about it being a dream. None of them could believe, they had barely processed the rest of what happened and couldn’t with things continuing to change. They practically needed a timeout to go over the facts so far, but trying to keep a logical mind seemed like an option that left them a long time ago.

“I would never start without you, but there were plenty of questions that need answering and the briefing should answer most of them,” Nate responded to Sophie, with a twinge of annoyance in his voice, gesturing to the girls when discussing the questions. 

“Well then, feel free to carry on,” Sophie responded looking around at the girls whose excitement was clear as day on their faces.

Allie seemed to be the only one able to keep her mind from being clouded, but even then when you are standing in front of two characters from your favorite tv show how do you keep your mind on track?

“Ok ok, she's just as amazing as she looks on screen, but like wow ok like wow. I can’t even think coherently at this point. Cuz like Sophie Devereaux is beautiful and I can’t believe it. How is she more beautiful in person ugh,” Fay thought to herself. Despite her attempts, Fay’s face reflected her thoughts and excitement. “Let’s focus on what Nate’s saying because it's probably important and I can’t keep focusing on Sophie but I mean how can I keep myself from being distracted by her ugh.” 

None of the girls could manage to say a word to Sophie as she walked over to the table where the girls were sitting and stood next to Kaitlin whose thoughts began racing about what was happening. “Omg, she’s standing right next to me! I can’t believe this ahh!” Kaitlin thought as her vision began to fade in and out and she subsequently fainted.

~o0o~

_Sophie walked in to see Nate working in the back. They had finished the research, so it had to be a briefing. He had told her the basics of the plan, but she understood it enough that she wouldn’t need a briefing. “What are you working on over there?”_

_“Uh, just the briefing,” Nate said, not looking up._

_“Who are you briefing, the air?” Sophie asked with a chuckle, but the joke landing flat on Nate._

_“The team, obviously,” Nate said with a serious face still not looking up as Sophie walked closer._

_“You do remember that you sent them on another mission, right?” Sophie was becoming more confused by his demeanor as she sat on the desk._

_“Well, a magician can’t go and reveal all his secrets, now can he?” Nate said slyly looking over at Sophie with a smirk._

_“What secrets do you have that I don’t know, darling?” Sophie asked, raising her eyebrows and placing her hand on his._

_“Only a few,” Nate said as he flipped his hand over to hold Sophie’s, “but they will be revealed in due time.”_

_“What did you gather a new team while I wasn’t looking?”_

_“Well, when would I have time for that when I haven’t even finished the briefing?” Nate asked sarcastically before letting go of Sophie’s hand and placing it back on the mouse._

_Sophie rolled her eyes at the remark as she stood up, “So you’re just not going to tell me?”_

_“How about you let me finish this and I’ll tell you over dinner once I’m done. Does that sound reasonable?”_

_“Ok, but I’m not cooking dinner,” Sophie said, looking back and smiling at Nate as she left the room._

~o0o~

“Is she ok?” Nate asked walking over to Kaitlin. When she fainted, she fell off of the chair and Allie was able to grab her by her sleeve so she didn’t hit her head and Sophie caught her on her other side.

“Yeah, she just faints sometimes it's not that big of a deal,” Allie said, lowering Kaitlin to the ground. She knew why Kaitlin had really fainted, seeing Sophie Devereaux and being right next to her, but she wasn’t going to tell them that. “I mean she’d faint again if she knew Sophie caught her... or that she fainted into Sophie,” Allie thought to herself.

“Oh yeah, she mentioned that in the group chat,” Taylah added, trying to focus on what was happening.

“Do you know how long this usually lasts for?” Sophie asked, setting Kaitlin down with Allie before standing back.

“Don’t know, she never told us,” Allie said as she checked Kaitlin’s heart rate.

“She never fainted around you guys before?” Sophie asked, surprised, “How did you know how to react then?”

“Well we’ve never met in person before, planned on it but it wasn’t going to happen for a while,” Fay answered. They had wanted to meet and figured it would be a couple of years, but this way works too.

“Dad’s an EMT, mom’s a doctor, I volunteered in a hospital and I’ve fainted a few times before too,” Allie responded looking back up at the group.

“Ok, so do you think she’s going to wake up anytime soon?” Nate asked.

“Probably in a minute or two, heart rate is normal and I caught her before she hit her head so she’ll be fine,” Allie said. 

Izzy slowly moved toward Allie under the guise of making sure Kaitlin was okay, but mostly to be closer to Sophie and Nate. “Well, it looks like she’s waking up,” Izzy said, noticing Kaitlin’s eyes open.

“How are you feeling, Kaitlin?” Taylah asked, copying Izzy’s movement with the same underlying motive.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I’m fine, don’t worry! sorry,” Kaitlin said, sitting up and looking around the room. She’d be blushing if there was enough blood left in her head for it. It took a minute for her to get her bearings back and remembered what had happened.

“There’s nothing you need to apologize for. Fainting isn’t always something you can control. Unless you can, which is a good trick for a grifter,” Sophie said as they helped Kaitlin stand up and sit in the chair.

The blood hadn’t quite made it back to her head yet, so she wasn’t quite cherry red, “Well, maybe not control it but I can usually tell when it’s going to happen.”

“I’m glad you're okay, Kaitlin,” Taylah responded walking over to her seat so that she didn’t faint from being so close to Sophie.

“Okay, does anyone else feel like they're going to faint or can we actually start the briefing?” Nate said with the same twinge of annoyance from the earlier interactions with the girls. The girls looked at each other and shared a quiet chuckle along with Sophie before looking back at Nate. “I’ll take that as a yes then. So the target is IYS,” The girls looked back at each other with wide eyes.


End file.
